2016-07-18

The potential of the Polish offshore industry

The factory of Bilfinger Mars Offshore (BMO) in Szczecin has manufactured the first two intermediate platforms of offshore wind farms for the Danish energy company, Dong Energy Wind Power. This is the first order manufactured by the factory which was opened in the beginning of 2016. Overall, there are 91 platforms to be constructed, with a total weight of approx. 30 thousand tonnes. The platforms will be assembled at the Race Bank offshore wind farm that is going to be erected on the UK coast. The BMO also boasts the largest gantry crane in Poland (and one of the largest in Europe), designed to handle wind turbine tower components. The crane is 120 m high, and it has a lifting capacity of 1400 t.

The manufacturing plant of Vistal Gdynia, in turn, designed for the construction of large-sized maritime structures, primarily for the offshore and marine segment, is the largest such plant in the Baltic Sea basin. The facility, with an area of 12.12 thousand m², operates in the India Quay in the port of Gdynia. Owing to that project, the production capacity of the company was increased from 20 thousand tonnes to 30 thousand tonnes of steel per annum.

One of the latest contracts signed by Vistal is the contract with the Norwegian company Aibel for the construction of an offshore platform on the Johan Sverdrup oil field, one of the largest deposits on the Norwegian shelf. The facility will be operated by Statoil. Vistal will manufacture, among other things, components of one of the three modules comprising the platform – the drilling module, which is the second largest of the modules. The project is scheduled to be completed in the end of 2016.

Recently, in turn, the company signed a contract for the construction of a partially outfitted helipad on the offshore platform. The project is implemented for Apply Emtunga from Sweden, which constructs an accommodation module for BP Trinidad and Tobago LLC. It will be installed on the Mahogany B platform, operating in the Caribbean Sea.

Another Tri-City company of the MARS Shipyards & Offshore group – Energomontaż-Północ Gdynia (EPG) – will also manufacture components for the Johan Sverdrup Norwegian oil field. The company will deliver steel structures with a mass of 2.5 thousand tonnes manufactured for the K2JV ANS consortium (joint venture of Kvaerner Stord and Kellog Brown & Root). The contract will be implemented in 2016–2017. Also, EPG will construct an accommodation module with a mass of 570 tonnes that is going to be delivered to the Danish company Maersk Drilling, 4 ship cranes for Palfinger Dreggen Poland, and modules for the Petrobaltic platform owned by the Lotos Petrobaltic. Also, EPG has a state-of-the-art manufacturing plant with an area of 2.4 thousand m², equipped with precise, numerically controlled machinery capable of manufacturing not only components for the offshore sector but also for the energy industry and aircraft industry. The plant contains a machine tool capable of handling components weighing up to 120 tonnes – this is the largest machine tool in the Baltic Sea basin.

One of the panels of the Maritime Economy Forum Gdynia 2016 will be dedicated to maritime industries.